


Unexpected

by lockmyheart



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Coming Out, Humor, M/M, Mild Fluff, Sibling Bonding, childhood crushes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 13:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2193564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lockmyheart/pseuds/lockmyheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey plucks up the courage to come out to his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this several weeks ago, but just when I was about to lay the finishing touches and post it, a similar fic was posted by another author (literally on the same day). It's always annoying when that sort of thing happens so I decided to wait with posting mine so two similar fics wouldn't be posted in a row. 
> 
> Ubeta'd, all mistakes are mine.

After Mickey’s big “coming out” at the Alibi, his brother Iggy was the next one to hear the news.

Iggy had been in jail these past few months (caught stealing shit, Mickey assumed, he hadn’t really paid attention) and he got out couple of weeks after the Alibi incident.

It had been some difficult weeks, but Ian was finally doing better. After a lot of ‘no, I’m not sick, I’m fine’ bullshit, he was now finally taking his meds and seeing a doctor. Mickey still watched him like a hawk, but he no longer felt bubbling panic whenever Ian decided to sleep in.

They have talked about how to tell Mickey’s brothers. Mickey first wanted to just fuck it, ignore it, and tell them nothing, maybe let them figure it out on their own. But Ian managed to convince him that it would be better if they heard it from him and not from some moron on a street corner who’s heard from a guy who’s heard from another guy that their little brother’s a fag. Mickey supposed he agreed with that.

So now Iggy was home, had been home for a couple hours, and Mickey was freaking out. His brothers might not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but Mickey didn’t want to lose them. He could hear it already: _you’re a fucking faggot? Get the fuck out of here, we want nothing more to do with you and your faggy relationship._

That was bad enough, but another possible outcome was that they would decide to go after Ian for ‘corrupting’ Mickey or some shit. He wouldn’t put it past them and this was what he was most afraid of.

Ian was there when Mickey decided to tell him. Mickey figured it was better to have him there and be ready to jump between him and Iggy if it came to that. 

After having a beer, playing videogames was the first thing Iggy wanted to do after getting out of jail. So there they were, the three of them, sitting on the sofa with Mickey in the middle playing videogames. Ian and Iggy were racing each other in Need for Speed, both deeply immersed and dead set to come out on top.

Ian had been giving Mickey questioning and encouraging glances all day. Despite being so into the game, Ian still managed to tear his eyes away ever so often, silently urging Mickey to rip the band-aid off.

Fuck it. The next time Ian sent him one of those looks Mickey met his eyes and nodded minutely. Ian smiled and turned his attention back towards the race, pressing his thigh against Mickey’s in silent support. It helped, if only a little.

Mickey took a deep breath. “Ey, Iggy.”

Fuck, he felt sick. Ian’s thigh pushed harder against him as if he could tell.

“Hm?” Iggy’s entire body tilted sideways he forced his car to round a particularly challenging corner. Mickey would have laughed at how ridiculous it looked if he wasn’t about to shake right out of his skin.

“Got somethin’ to tell ya, man."

“Spit it out then, you’re distracting me,” Iggy said, letting out a whoop when his car surpassed Ian’s.

“Right.” Then this surely was going to distract him even more, Mickey thought. His hands curled into fists and he steeled himself for a fight. Just spit it out then. “I’m gay.”

He tensed, automatically holding his breath. Next to him, Ian sat up a little straighter, his jaw set tight. Mickey was somewhat glad he wasn’t the only one who was wary about this.

Mickey had been through a lot of scenarios when it came to what Iggy’s reaction would be, but what came out of his brother’s mouth sure as hell wasn’t an option he had ever considered.

“Yeah, no shit.” Iggy continued to race as if Mickey hadn’t just dropped a fucking bomb the size of Russia. Even Ian was visible shocked and he turned towards Iggy, his car slamming into a tunnel wall when he stopped pressing buttons on the controller. “Dude, you’re letting me win,” Iggy said. And that was all he said.

Mickey’s heart pounded against his ribcage. Unsure how to react, he settled on his go-to emotion, which was anger. “What – what the fuck do you mean _no shit_?!” He looked over at Ian who was now biting his lip to hold back a laugh. Mickey wanted to punch his stupid face for being amused when all Mickey wanted to do was to bury himself in the backyard.

“Means we know, man,” Iggy said with a shrug, still deeply concentrated on the game even if Ian had completely let go of the controller and he was clearly winning the race.

Mickey’s fists clenched and unclenched with a whole different kind of anxiety than before. “The fuck’s ‘we’?”

“Me and Colin.”

Mickey wanted out of this fucking conversation but he had to know what the fuck’s going on, so against his better judgment he asked, “Since when?”

Iggy shrugged again. “Since like… I dunno, man, I was like fourteen, that’d make you, uh…” He trailed off, frowning like he’s trying to remember how old Mickey was now. Moron. “Nine?”

“Ten,” Mickey corrected. His voice sounded far away even to him. He was tenser than ever now and Ian was fucking laughing, a full out belly laugh, head flung back against the back of the couch. Mickey glared at him and Ian shot him an apologetic smile and rested a hand on Mickey’s thigh, rubbing. Like that helped any. The fucker was eating this shit up.

“How?” This time it was Ian who asked. He was looking at Iggy with bright, amused eyes but he had forced himself to stopped laughing.

“You really wanna know?”

“Yeah, I really fuckin’ wanna know,” Mickey growled and Ian bumped his shoulder lightly into Mickey’s, but nope, Mickey wasn’t going to calm down.  

How the fuck had Iggy and Colin clued in when Mickey was a fucking _child_? He was really pretty sure he hadn’t banged any dudes at ten. Not any girls either for that matter.  Plus Mickey couldn’t remember even knowing that about himself at ten. Other people hadn’t really started becoming a priority yet at that age, he’d been more occupied with learning how to shoot guns  and making sure his sister didn’t cry so much at night.

“Alright, fine.” Iggy’s car crossed the finish line and started a new game right away. “Remember Flamer? Was in my class?”

Mickey froze. He was suddenly yanked violently back in time to something he had completely forgotten about, something that now made perfect sense when he thought back on it. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, you’d remember,” Iggy said and there was a smug smirk on his lips. It wasn’t often Iggy knew something Mickey didn’t, so he was enjoying this too. Mickey felt ganged up on and he sank down in his seat.

Ian looked between both of them, excitement and curiosity lighting up his eyes. “What?” he asked. “Who’s Flamer?”

“Real name was Dave,” Iggy said and Mickey wanted to tell him to shut up because Ian didn’t need to know about this. Really, _really_ didn’t need to know about this because Mickey knew he wouldn’t be able to let it go. “He used hang out here a lot for a while because his house burned down. He probably did it, he liked setting shit on fire. Anyway, lil’ Mick was always hangin’ ‘round him, askin’ stupid questions, like if he wanted to play games ‘n shit. It was fucking annoying, but Flamer went along with it sometimes. Something about him not havin’ siblings of his own so he’d play with Mickey and Mandy.” Iggy shook his head, as if wanting little siblings was completely unreasonable. “Colin’s the one who realized you liked ‘im or somethin’. You never gave a crap about any of the girls we brought home but you were always hovering around Flamer like a fuckin’ miniature shadow.”

By now Ian was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyelashes. Ian laughing like that usually made Mickey laugh as well, but now he was too mortified to even crack a smile. While Iggy spoke Mickey had only sunk lower and lower in his seat, his ears glowing hot. He had completely and totally forgotten that Flamer had ever been a thing.  

“Oh, god, _Mick_.” Ian was clearly having the time of his life. Good for fucking him. “That’s so cute, Jesus Christ. Your childhood crush.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Mickey mumbled and closed his eyes. Maybe if he wished for it hard enough he would be able to teleport somewhere else.

“Yeah, so anyway,” Iggy said and Mickey swore he was going to strangle him if he continued to spew out embarrassing crap. “We kinda forgot about it eventually, thought you might have grown out of it because nothin’ like that happened again after Flamer. But we weren’t born yesterday, so when Gallagher here started hangin’ out here we put two and two together. We already knew he liked dicks so we figured—“

“ _What_?” Ian shrieked at the same time as Mickey turned towards him and yelled “Ha!” in his face. Served him right.

“Dude, you messed with Spike,” Iggy said. “You two both’s got a thing for my friends or something.”

Mickey gaped. “You fucked Spike?!”

Now it was Ian’s turn to look horrified. “I – I – Once!” he spluttered, color rising in his cheeks. “And we didn’t fuck, we just jerked each other off.”

“Blew ‘m too,” Iggy murmured, still focused on the screen instead of the conversation at hand. Mickey suspected that knowing about this shit didn’t make him completely comfortable with it so he chose to distract himself with the game. Mickey could live with that, it was heaps better than the outright disgust and violence he’d come to expect.  

“How the fuck do you know this?" Ian asked, still red-faced, and finally it was Mickey’s turn to send smirks his way. “Roger Spikey was two years older than me, but still younger than you. I didn’t think he was hanging out with you, let alone _telling_ you about… that!”

“Used to smoke together outside of school,” Iggy said. “He wasn’t a shy guy, I always knew he was a fa – uh.” His eyes darted towards them a bit uneasily. “Gay.”

Mickey was slowly but steadily developing a headache. This was too much, it didn’t make sense that his brothers not only knew about Mickey’s stupid childhood crushes but also had gay friends growing up. “But dad…” he started, desperate to get it to make sense somehow. “You always… y’know.”

“So did you,” Iggy reminded him. “We all knew what he’d do if we defied him. I still think it’s fuckin’ weird, don’t get me wrong,” he added and glanced over at Mickey. “But Spike always insisted he didn’t choose it, so… Not really his fault if he wants to suck dick, I suppose. I was fine as long as he didn’t hit on me, y’know.”

“Has _anyone_ ever hit on you? I really doubt -”

That earned Mickey a rather hard punch in the bicep. He rubbed his arm it with a wide grin.

Ian rolled his eyes at the two of them, but he seemed impressed, and Mickey had to admit that he kind of was too. It was so far from what Mickey had expected. Ian squeezed Mickey’s knee, smiling so brightly Mickey couldn’t help but smile back this time.

Iggy glanced at them again, an almost comically wary look in his eye. “Just don’t make out in front of me or anything.”

Mickey laughed a little and punched him back. “As if I’d want your ugly mug as an audience anyway, dick.”

* * *

 

A couple hours later, Ian pressed kiss after kiss down Mickey’s throat in the privacy of Mickey’s bedroom. Mickey arched up against him, letting go of a soft moan. Then Ian, the asshole, had to go and ruin it.

“So,” he started, his lips moving against Mickey’s pulse point. Mickey can hear the smirk in his tone. “ _Flamer,_ huh?”

Mickey groaned and pushed at Ian’s chest in a feeble attempt to get him off him, his cheeks heating up again. “Oh, fuck off.”

Ian hovered over him, grinning like an idiot. “Was he cute?” he teased, tickling Mickey’s side until he squirmed and slapped his hand away.

“Jesus Christ,” Mickey all but whined, screwing his eyes shut. “I was ten, give me a break. I didn’t even fucking remember until today.”

Ian laughed and leaned down to kiss him. Mickey reluctantly let him. The kiss turned into another and then another, and soon Ian was licking his way into Mickey’s mouth, pushing his fingers into his hair and grinding their hips together.

Then Ian pulled away for no reason and Mickey couldn’t help but make a low noise of complaint. “I just think it’s sweet,” Ian said, rubbing his thumb across Mickey’s swollen bottom lip. 

Mickey groaned. “Really, Ian? Can’t you just shut up about this and go back to what we were doing?” He wrapped one of his legs around Ian’s waist and squeezed. “C’mon.”

“But we never talk about these things.” Ian nearly pouted and Mickey rolled his eyes, refusing to look at him. “I don’t know these things about you.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not supposed to.” Mickey couldn’t help but be a little pissed at his naive ten-year-old self for being so transparent. But Mickey hadn’t known what was going on at that age himself, the crush was all innocent and shit; all he’d wanted was to hang out with the dude, make him think Mickey was cool. It was only two years later that he witnessed his father beat up a gay couple who had dared to show a little affection while walking down the street. Mickey hadn’t been aware at ten, but at twelve he had an inkling. At twelve Mickey knew he was wrong.

Ian distracted his train of thought by pressing another kiss to his lips. “My first was technically Justin Timberlake,” Ian admitted and Mickey found it in himself to laugh.

“Thanks,” he said, tightening his leg around Ian. “I feel better now. Fuck, you’re lame. He’s such a cheeseball.”

“I know,” Ian agreed. “The first ‘real’ person was this kid in my class, he was _so cool_ and I remember just wanting to hold his hand.”

“How scandalous.”

Ian poked him in the ribs. “Shush.”

Ian flopped down next to Mickey and turned over onto his side. Mickey did the same and it left them so close their noses were almost brushing.

“It could have gone worse, you know,” Ian murmured.

“It’s just embarrassing, that’s all. Never thought I’d given away any hints.”

Ian entwined their legs together and threaded his fingers through Mickey’s. “For what it’s worth,” he said, stroking his thumb over the back of Mickey’s hand. “I never would have guessed. Not until you pounced on me.”

“I didn’t pounce.”

Ian’s nose scrunched up when he grinned. It was fucking cute. “You kind of pounced.”

“Whatever, man. Can we _please_ stop talking about this now and get back to fucking?”

“We were fucking?” Ian blinked innocently. “I thought we were just making out.”

“Fuck off.” In under two seconds Mickey had shoved Ian onto his back and climbed on top of him, straddling his thighs. He began unbuttoning Ian’s shirt with hard, impatient yanks and Ian laughed, sliding his hands up Mickey’s sides.

“I think you just pounced again, Mick.”

Mickey leaned down and stopped with his mouth hovering directly above Ian’s. He stared down into his eyes, pleased to see Ian’s pupils dilating. “Less talking, more fucking,” he growled and just when he forcibly pressed their lips together Ian flipped them back around.

The bed creaked beneath them and both boys grinned into the kiss. Yet another obstacle had been passed and they were still standing. For the first time since this entire thing started Mickey considered the possibility that maybe they would make it. 


End file.
